Runescape Blogging
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
842 views
Posting that I'd had 100k views has caused a bit of a spike in people asking me for tips on blogging, specifically blogging about Runescape. Instead of replying to everyone individually, I thought I'd blog about it. :P (Besides I promised to do this about a billion years ago and forgot. Sorry!)
First of all, I'm not the only blogger out there and Icey Dan1 (Silentcore) made a video with loads of tips in it. These were collected from several bloggers, so will give you a greater overview:
I'm directing you there because what works for me might not work for you, and that's ok. The world would be really boring if we all had the same blog. :P
Now for my tips, again with the caveat that you should take or leave them. If something works better for you, then go that route. My way isn't necessarily the 'right' way. Before you start, think about why you want to keep a Runescape blog. That will dictate the way that you create it. If it's for a record of achievement, then that's fine. Just start a blog and take screenshots, put them up whenever you get a level. If it's for an archive of memories, then consider how you would keep that. Would you write out whole reports and essays, like I do, or would you prefer just a short note saying, 'On this day, such and such happened'? Or is it a bid to become e-famous?
I'm going to linger on that last one for a second, because that's the most common reason that I see skirted around. The more honest just come out and say, 'I want to become e-famous, tell me how to write a blog'. The rest just mumble things about lack of comments. If you simply want in-game fame, then I'd suggest that becoming a blogger isn't for you. Put it this way, when did you last hear of a blogger being invited to Jagex Game Studios, like TehNoobShow, Gertjaars and some fansite owners were? To my knowledge, it's never happened. Bloggers also aren't accosted by other players as often as you think that they might be. When Icey Dan1 first released his video, I was approached once or twice a day by random people recognising my name. That lasted for about 2 weeks. These days, it's still a surprise when someone does come up to me and tell me that they read my blog. On average, that happens about once a fortnight (if I'm no lifing inside the game) or once a month (if real life keeps happening). It is always a solitary person. You're never, ever going to see scenes around me like you get around Zezima or KingDuffy. You might be sneering by now and going, 'Yeah, but Merch, you're not the greatest Runescape blogger ever, you know?' But the point is that I've never read or witnessed it happening to any other blogger either. Probably the best known blogger of all is Vaskor; and I've walked from one side of Gielinor to the other without once seeing him glomped by rabid fans.
In-game fame happens through high achievements - being number one in a skill or all of them, being the first to reach 99 in a new skill, being the first to solo some terrible creature, being the fastest at something - or through making videos. The like of Excl and TehNoobShow are lauded, because of their videos. Read the paragraph above again. When I was being recognised once or twice a day, it was after I'd been featured in Silentcore's video. It was reflected fame from Silentcore - a film-maker - it wasn't my blog per se. However, to prove this to you, I'm going to keep a count. For the next week, if you read this blog and you see me in-game, then please shout out to me: 'Count me in'. I'm sure that if you left a 'count me in' message in Canting, someone would pass it on. I will keep a count of these and edit this blog to tell you how many people said it.
COUNT ME IN: 11
In short, my response (in advance) is that blogging isn't the way to become e-famous. You'd be better off training your levels to awesome amounts of xp or learning how to work Sony Vegas.
For those of you still wanting to blog, then there are four ways to go about it: Ordinary blogs (you're reading one); Twitter blogs (140 characters long); Vlogging (film your blog and upload it to You Tube); or Skill Logs. Have a look through and see which one appeals to you. I would suggest ordinary blogging only for those who like writing. With each of them, with the exception of Twitter, you have to factor in time constraints. I touch-type and waffle without much thought to what I'm typing, but I've still been known to spend an hour or two writing blog entries. If you type slowly and you are a perfectionist about the word form, then it's going to take you hours and hours and hours.
There's also time taken over the screenshots. I have an achievement in-game and I have to pause mid-woot to take the picture. Then it's into paint to crop it and put it on-line. If I've been snap-happy, then that takes a while. Also, you miss half of the event, because you're constantly copying, pasting and saving pictures. I remember Kitt Fox pausing in her blogging once and sighing with relief at the fact that she could just experience her events, without having to worry about taking pictures. I also remember Marlaine bemoaning the fact that it takes her thrice as long to complete quests, because she's writing mini-guides and taking pictures for her blog. Really, blogging is for people with a lot of time on their hands; and while you're blogging, you're not in-game getting levels and hanging out.
So blogging doesn't make you e-famous and it does take hours. There is only one way then that someone is going to successfully write one and that's if they are finding it fun. If it's not fun, then it's a chore and your blog will last three weeks at most, then sink without a trace. For it to be fun, you have to make it fun. You have to write how you want to, in the style you find most comfortable, about subjects which interest you. This has the added bonus of making your writing more enthusiastic and things like that are infectious. People read it because you're making it fun to read. And it's fun to read because it was fun to write.
Personally, I think that blogs which are just lists of levels achieved, while important for the writer, aren't that interesting to read as blogs. Things like this would be better suited to Skill Logs, which have this as their very nature. They are interesting to look through and more likely to attract cheerleaders, than blogs of the same content. I think that people coming to blogs expect more. They're coming to read highly subjective and biased news reports, eye-witness accounts and gossip columns. You're listening in on overheard conversations in Piscatoris, then reporting them with your own views attached; you're telling people that you saw a famous Runescaper in Edgeville; you're reviewing quests, minigames and new content; you're ranting and raving about situations, updates, other players, the price of crowns, the ability of pixels to pwn you. If Twitter is like the headline news, skill logs are the actual news reports, then blogs are the columnists. We're the soap operas, in fact. Let us entertain you.
Here's the difference:
Twitter: Just got 85 in att, def & str. Combat lvl 119 ftw!
Skill Log: *insert picture of my levels alongside the date*
Vlog: Film myself getting the levels.
Blog: I've just had a momentous moment, but the run up to it was a little fraught. Kuradel had assigned me steel dragons, so I was in her cave. For a couple of hours, it was just me hopping between four dragons, who all wanted me dead. They nearly succeeded more times than I care to recall. In fact, I learned an important lesson today. Namely, do not argue politics in Canting, whilst ignoring your hp levels in front of steel dragons. They take advantage of things like that and really neither Brown, Cameron or Clegg will bless my grave, if I fall to them.
As the European schools emptied and the Americans woke up, so the steel dragon cave filled up. This was all very lovely for about an hour. There ended up four of us, each with a dragon apiece, which worked out well. You had just enough time to recover and swap stuff with Shelley before 'your' dragon respawned. Then a fifth person just logged in smack bang in the middle of us. Nothing was attacking him, as we had them covered, but he didn't hop. Instead Archangel lL tried to take over the room, physically and verbally.
To a certain extent, he succeeded, insofar as two of us eventually left. However, I only left when I was out of supplies. First he insulted the combat levels of everyone present, sneering at the time it was taking us to finish off a single dragon. Then he got personal. He asked the ages of two of the people there, so you can imagine my reaction. He accused us of not having girlfriends and being stupid (he'd naturally failed to notice that I am female; ok that wouldn't necessarily stop me having a girlfriend, but you'd think that the default assumption would be that I'm straight). He then went on to boast about his degree. I stopped being so mature and countered with, 'I'm female and I've got two degrees and a Masters!' He shut up about real life qualifications then, after muttering something about not referring to me, but to the '14 year old in the corner'. How does he know he's 14? Because he typed in capitals. He then went on about having played since 2003 and being a close friend of Zezima. No-one was interested! He reckoned that he could pwn us in the hiscores. It got so wearisome, it had to be said, particularly as he was determined to take every dragon off everyone there; and didn't even shut up when one person left to give him his own dragon. I actually apologised to the remaining two for leaving them, as I came to the end of my supplies and left.
I was just 6k from my att, str and def levels then, but couldn't face round two up there. Capt n Abby, in Canting, suggested Armoured Zombies, which was much better. I got my levels within about half an hour and came out with 119 combat. Woot!
See the difference there? Ok, perhaps my example shouldn't have involved whinging about another player, but it was a real story about something that happened. The actual levels were just the glue holding it together. Your blog is like a diary, but more than that. It's a commentary. You are a roving reporter recording all the news and gossip of the day, in highly opinionated tones. It's a snapshot of a single player's views and observations, at a single point in time, in Runescape.
It's my belief that, if you write long enough, then readers will just turn up anyway. However, if you really want to attract them, then the best way is to visit other people's blogs and leave comments. I don't just mean spam-market yourself. I mean comment on their blog. Most people are intensely curious about this new person, so will click on your name to find a link back to your blog. You could, however, ensure this by finishing your comment with a line, 'by the way, I also keep a Runescape blog. It's here' *insert link*. Of course, the biggest blog to do this on is Vaskor's. Go and check that out at Runescape Readers' Digest. His whole blog is about highlighting the other great blogs out there, so if you're on his radar, then you might end up featured and then everyone will know about you. All you have to do is keep writing to give them something to read. Edit: In response to this, Vaskor's written that, if you comment on his blog entry here, he'll add you to his blog-roll. :P Go leave your links!
Once people do visit your blog and comment, please do respond to their comments. I know that I'm horrifically behind on responding to comments on my blog and that makes me cringe. I keep running out of time. :P As a general rule though, people will return to your blog to see if there has been a reponse from its owner. Then they're there to read your next blog entry and your next, then you end up bookmarked.
Anyway, I hope that there has been something there for those asking. Good luck with your blogs! And if you want to leave a comment here with your blog address, please do go ahead. I can't promise to linger on them all, but I will try to visit them. It's not that I don't want to, it's a time factor at the moment. Nevertheless, the chances are that anyone reading this blog might have a scan down the comments. This is one of your big chances to big your blog up! Go go go!
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